How Do I Prevent a Malware Infection on my Website?

Your company’s website is your digital face to the public. You’ve most likely have invested a sizeable amount of time, energy and money into creating the perfect web presence in a way that is visually pleasing and functional. Just like people, websites can also get infections that can be really tricky to get rid of. The last thing you want is to have to scrap all the hard work you put into your website because it got infiltrated with malware.

The following are some helpful tips to help you prevent a website malware infection and keep your website working properly for you and your customers.

1. Updates 

Content management systems, such as WordPress, are great tools for website creation. However, they become easy targets for hackers to flood your site with malware and viruses. This is because WordPress themes, plugins and other accessories allow backdoor access for hackers to find and infiltrate your server and your content if not updated frequently. If you make sure that your website is up to date with the most current versions of plugins and themes, you will minimize your risk of a cyber attack.

The creators of these accessories are constantly looking for and correcting weaknesses that hackers use, so be sure to always keep all of your site components updated.

2. Website Scanning

Much of the damaging malware does not manifest itself immediately. Each virus has its own properties, but it is common they commonly go unnoticed because they hide in the background of your site altering one line of script into the code of your website. To the untrained eye, it is very hard to catch malware in these beginning stages because it disguises itself to blend in with the rest of your web coding.

3. Web Application Firewalls

Even better than early removal is preventing the presence of malware in the first place. Reportedly, over 1 million new strains of malware are created and spread through the internet every week. With such an evolving attack force, it is difficult to prevent against all types of malware, but web application firewalls do a lot in regards to protection.

Firewalls are designed to evaluate each traffic attempt that comes to your site to see if it fits certain criteria. This will allow access for the traffic you are hoping to attract such as customers or search engines but blocks out unwanted visitors from infectious malware.

4. Strong Passwords

This one might seem obvious and too simple to even mention. However, many companies are still underestimating the value of protecting sensitive data with a strong password. “Welcome1234” is not going to cut it these days. A strong password should include at least 8 characters, uppercase and lowercase, a combination of characters and numbers, and even special characters.

Written by Nicole Richards